‘Altered Carbon’ Creator and Cast on a Potential Season 2, and Finding Feminist Strength in a Naked Clone Fight

The new Netflix sci-fi original “Altered Carbon” is a show that features an awful lot to process, thanks to its high concept premise and dense world-building. Based on the novel by Richard K. Morgan and created by Laeta Kalogridis, the drama takes place in the year 2384, where humans have developed the ability to transfer their consciousnesses to new bodies — a technology that has completely upended society.

Dumped into the middle of this crazy world is Takeshi Kovacs (played by a few different actors, including “The Killing’s” Joel Kinnaman), a former revolutionary tasked with solving a murder mystery, a task that proves complicated in a world where death isn’t a permanent state of being.

IndieWire - Kalogridis - Cast - Members - Kinnaman

IndieWire spoke with Kalogridis as well as cast members Kinnaman, James Purefoy, Martha Higareda, Dichen Lachman, and Renée Elise Goldsberry about a few key questions triggered by the show’s 10 episodes — specifically, how it came to be, why it was important for the show to have a female showrunner as well as a female director on key episodes (especially the one with the naked clone battle), and where things stand when it comes to a theoretical Season 2. Warning: spoilers follow for all 10 episodes.

“It’s Just Not a PG-13 Kind of Story”

Kalogridis - Novel - Altered - Carbon - Bookstore

Kalogridis picked up the novel “Altered Carbon” at a bookstore after its publication in 2002: “In those days when you could still just walk around a bookstore and pick up things that look interesting,” she said. She immediately looked into acquiring the rights, which Warner Bros. had already nabbed, “so I waited until they dropped out. Because I had heard that Warner was trying to sort of re-think the content of the book to make it more family-friendly, more PG-13. And I didn’t feel that that was within the DNA of the material. It’s just...